"The man who prevented a nuclear war was a Russian submariner. His name was Vasili Arkhipov. I was proud and I am proud of my husband, always."

Ma'am, you should be proud to have a husband who was that rational during this time period.

I was 1-year-old and living in Florida (born in Bradenton) and my father had bought a Savage 22 long range rifle for protecting the family (don't know what that would have done) but the way my father told me, everyone have an itchy trigger finger./restored it and still have that Savage

It's amazing that we survived that at all. Kennedy was surrounded by his generals telling him to attack (which we now know would have been after the Soviets had active nukes ready to launch). Little mistakes here and there. A Russian wanting to launch his nuclear torpedo but vetoed at the last minute. So many ways that could have been the end of civilization. I think it is an excellent example of why rational, cooler heads should prevail, and this modern "act on your gut" streak in many Americans could be the death of us all.

WorldCitizen:It's amazing that we survived that at all. Kennedy was surrounded by his generals telling him to attack (which we now know would have been after the Soviets had active nukes ready to launch). Little mistakes here and there. A Russian wanting to launch his nuclear torpedo but vetoed at the last minute. So many ways that could have been the end of civilization. I think it is an excellent example of why rational, cooler heads should prevail, and this modern "act on your gut" streak in many Americans could be the death of us all.

It isn't commonly known that there was a reason why the US generals were so brazen and why Kennedy could demand the Russians remove their missiles from Cuba while we had deployed our nukes to Turkey. The US knew they had an overwhelming advantage over the Russians in both the total number of nuclear weapons and delivery systems. While it may sound rediculous to speculate about how limited our losses may have been, it wouldn't have been quite the doomsday that many speculated and it would have been a terribly loopsided fight (something the Russians were all too aware of).

That said, the Russians went on a nuke building binge to make sure they were never in the same position again.

Kibbler:The painful truth is that the exceptionally exceptional U.S. pushed the world a lot closer to armageddon than the evil godless U.S.S.R.

Nukes in Cuba would have been the equivalent of the US putting nukes in western Poland. Havana to DC is about the same as Warsaw to Moscow, there's no way either side would allow something like that. That was probably the single biggest provocation by either side during the cold war.

that's a horrible thing to say. Imagine all those innocent people and children that would have been killed. And all the advances we've had since then. Like, iPhones, and Facebook, and American Idol, and Jersey Shore, The Kardashians and Real Housewives of...

Mr. Eugenides:Kibbler: The painful truth is that the exceptionally exceptional U.S. pushed the world a lot closer to armageddon than the evil godless U.S.S.R.

Nukes in Cuba would have been the equivalent of the US putting nukes in western Poland. Havana to DC is about the same as Warsaw to Moscow, there's no way either side would allow something like that. That was probably the single biggest provocation by either side during the cold war.

Mr. Eugenides:Kibbler: The painful truth is that the exceptionally exceptional U.S. pushed the world a lot closer to armageddon than the evil godless U.S.S.R.

Nukes in Cuba would have been the equivalent of the US putting nukes in western Poland. Havana to DC is about the same as Warsaw to Moscow, there's no way either side would allow something like that. That was probably the single biggest provocation by either side during the cold war.

Man that story was so full of manure it reeked, yes he did prevent an idiot from launching WWIII but as someone posted above the Soviets knew they would have came out much worse than the US if the war started, so he was not cast out, in fact he was promoted to admiral and later became head of the Kirov Naval Academy, not what you do to someone you want to punish, also the B 59 did not "surrender" to the US destroyer (not battleship) USS Coney, she was forced to surface and identify herself. also the "dropped warning grenades" meant they used practice depth charges to warn the sub what might happen if they didn't surface (IE the next salvo might be real bub come up and lets talk), theres more hyperbole there but I'm tired.

/celebrate his life but tell the story straight, it makes better reading.

The Americans decided to ratchet up the pressure, and dropped warning grenades

Warning grenades?? The hell?

It's meant to tell them that they that they know that they are there and that they could've used depth charges instead. Both sides did it, and both sides had some of their diesel boats forced to surface. It's one of the main reasons that both navies wanted nuclear powered boats so badly.

The Americans decided to ratchet up the pressure, and dropped warning grenades

Warning grenades?? The hell?

It's meant to tell them that they that they know that they are there and that they could've used depth charges instead. Both sides did it, and both sides had some of their diesel boats forced to surface. It's one of the main reasons that both navies wanted nuclear powered boats so badly.

Mr. Eugenides:Nukes in Cuba would have been the equivalent of the US putting nukes in western Poland. Havana to DC is about the same as Warsaw to Moscow, there's no way either side would allow something like that. That was probably the single biggest provocation by either side during the cold war

Are you farking serious ?

The US invented nukes, used them on civilian targets, and basically setup corporate monopolies over several other empires.

The USSR was not provoking they were respondingSo was Cuba

The US should be farking ashamed of their boycott. You suck, You're number one, You're number one - at being assholes and creating death machines for the 90% of humanity that would be glad to see that chicken shiat nation fall.

JesusJuice:Mr. Eugenides: Kibbler: The painful truth is that the exceptionally exceptional U.S. pushed the world a lot closer to armageddon than the evil godless U.S.S.R.

Nukes in Cuba would have been the equivalent of the US putting nukes in western Poland. Havana to DC is about the same as Warsaw to Moscow, there's no way either side would allow something like that. That was probably the single biggest provocation by either side during the cold war.

Don't let facts interfere with hating America!

Never mind Warsaw. The US had nuclear missiles already stationed in Turkey. The distance between Ankara, Turkey, and Moscow is slightly less than the distance between Havana and Moscow.

capt.hollister:JesusJuice: Mr. Eugenides: Kibbler: The painful truth is that the exceptionally exceptional U.S. pushed the world a lot closer to armageddon than the evil godless U.S.S.R.

Nukes in Cuba would have been the equivalent of the US putting nukes in western Poland. Havana to DC is about the same as Warsaw to Moscow, there's no way either side would allow something like that. That was probably the single biggest provocation by either side during the cold war.

Don't let facts interfere with hating America!

Never mind Warsaw. The US had nuclear missiles already stationed in Turkey. The distance between Ankara, Turkey, and Moscow is slightly less than the distance between Havana and MoscowWashington, DC.

capt.hollister:capt.hollister: JesusJuice: Mr. Eugenides: Kibbler: The painful truth is that the exceptionally exceptional U.S. pushed the world a lot closer to armageddon than the evil godless U.S.S.R.

Nukes in Cuba would have been the equivalent of the US putting nukes in western Poland. Havana to DC is about the same as Warsaw to Moscow, there's no way either side would allow something like that. That was probably the single biggest provocation by either side during the cold war.

Don't let facts interfere with hating America!

Never mind Warsaw. The US had nuclear missiles already stationed in Turkey. The distance between Ankara, Turkey, and Moscow is slightly less than the distance between Havana and Moscow Washington, DC.

What was that about the single biggest provocation ?

FTFM. Talk about invalidating my own point !

A part of the missile crisis negotiations resulted in the quiet removal of those missiles (about six months later) from Turkey.

The Americans decided to ratchet up the pressure, and dropped warning grenades

Warning grenades?? The hell?

They're called Practice Depth Charges or PDC's. Really only a signal device, about as strong as a grenade but won't damage the hull of a submarine. I've been on a sub where they've dropped them on us, there's no way they'll force you to the surface, just let's you know you've been found and you're not getting away.

Well we don't KNOW if it would have "started WWIII". It would likely have sunk at least one American ship, maybe the whole task force, hard to say, depends on how close they were together.

Keep in mind that if the Soviet sub nuked OUR ships, the ball would be in our court. It's unlikely the Soviets would take the opportunity to first-strike us, that wouldn't make much sense, many of the higher-ups were well aware of how we had significant superiority in overall nuke power. And the US was aware that first-striking the Soviets was hardly worth it, the Soviets might "lose" but at the cost of millions of American lives, and the loss of some ships really isn't even relevant.

Maybe the US would have attacked some Soviet ships with conventional weapons to make a point, or just invaded Cuba outright.

There's really no telling how that would have gone. The Soviets may even have realized how serious this was and backed down. That may seem farfetched, but they did back down over the whole Cuba thing altogether in the end.

Slartibartfaster:Mr. Eugenides: Nukes in Cuba would have been the equivalent of the US putting nukes in western Poland. Havana to DC is about the same as Warsaw to Moscow, there's no way either side would allow something like that. That was probably the single biggest provocation by either side during the cold war

Are you farking serious ?

The US invented nukes, used them on civilian targets, and basically setup corporate monopolies over several other empires.

The USSR was not provoking they were respondingSo was Cuba

The US should be farking ashamed of their boycott. You suck, You're number one, You're number one - at being assholes and creating death machines for the 90% of humanity that would be glad to see that chicken shiat nation fall.

I agree with some of your point, however you are wrong in some major ways.

The US did not use nuclear weapons on a civilian target. There was no such thing as a civilian target when it comes to strategic bombing.

In the context of WW2 it was not only an acceptable thing to do it was a moral imperative as it greatly shortened the war and ultimately saved millions of lives. Read up on the planned invasion of Japan for some context. We are still handing out Purple Hearts that were ordered for that campaign.

/The lesser evil is still evil, and killing fewer people still means you are going to have to kill someone.

Pribar:Man that story was so full of manure it reeked, yes he did prevent an idiot from launching WWIII but as someone posted above the Soviets knew they would have came out much worse than the US if the war started, so he was not cast out, in fact he was promoted to admiral and later became head of the Kirov Naval Academy, not what you do to someone you want to punish, also the B 59 did not "surrender" to the US destroyer (not battleship) USS Coney, she was forced to surface and identify herself. also the "dropped warning grenades" meant they used practice depth charges to warn the sub what might happen if they didn't surface (IE the next salvo might be real bub come up and lets talk), theres more hyperbole there but I'm tired.

/celebrate his life but tell the story straight, it makes better reading.

I'll have to disagree. Yes, he got 'promoted' (assuming you did more research than I did, which was zilch) to a desk job overseeing an academy, but to a naval guy who wants to be at sea, that isn't exactly a promotion. [just my opinion]. But I do agree that he wasn't exactly demoted to a lower rank.

As for the Soviets knowing they would lose....... sometimes these blusterings aren't about which country will win/lose, but about making a show of force to your own population to buy votes (for a perfect example, look at India and Pakistan, both of which could nuke the other but won't since it is just stupid).

My uneducated guess is that you are right about the 'warning grenade'.

Oh, and THANK YOU to JasonOfOrillia for naming the radar gentleman who realized that there were NOT a couple of dozen american bombers heading for USSR and chose not to waste anyone's time (and lives) by recommending a retaliatory attack.

My guess is that there are a couple of dozen of such gentlemen of various ranks and job functions scattered about the (old/ancient) Soviet military.

Most of what your "didnt care for the citizens" ass hole of a government told you about all the other governments - was pretty much the same shiat the "other" guys were feeding their own gullible and ignorant citizens

AlwaysRightBoy:"The man who prevented a nuclear war was a Russian submariner. His name was Vasili Arkhipov. I was proud and I am proud of my husband, always."

Ma'am, you should be proud to have a husband who was that rational during this time period.

I was 1-year-old and living in Florida (born in Bradenton) and my father had bought a Savage 22 long range rifle for protecting the family (don't know what that would have done) but the way my father told me, everyone have an itchy trigger finger./restored it and still have that Savage